HomeLandLab Podcast

Episode 31: Cassie Hoeprich, Lena Miller and Suzanne Nienaber

In exploring the intersection of homelessness and public space, I have sometimes heard comments like, “Why should we build more parks, if they’re just going to be overrun by the homeless?” This was a challenging sentiment the first time I...

Episode 30: Barron Peper and Jescelle Major

Designers who have watched the homelessness crisis expand during their educational careers seem to have a heightened sense of the design community’s opportunity to creatively engage the issue of homelessness. During this episode, I speak with two young designers: Barron...

Episode 29: Paul Simmons and Sylvana Niehuser

On today’s episode I wanted to move the conversation away from the big cities and talk about how homelessness impacts some of the smaller communities that may fly under the radar in our national dialogue. In Olympia, Washington, which lies...

Episode 28: Jonathan Martin and Scott Greenstone of Project Homeless

On this episode of the HomeLandLab podcast, I’m very pleased to have Jonathan Martin, Editor of Project Homeless for The Seattle Times and Scott Greenstone, reporter, producer and engagement editor for Project Homeless With me to discuss the nexus between...

Episode 27: Marla Torrado

About a year ago, I happened to be in Washington, DC visiting the National Building Museum, one of my all time favorites. There, in an exhibition on, the changing idea of home in contemporary America, I learned about Austin’s Alley...

Episode 26: Natasha Ponczek Shoemake

Episode 25: Alan Graham

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I had the opportunity to travel to Austin. Among visits to too many taco and barbeque joints, I also had to go visit Alan Graham and his team at the Community First...

Episode 24: Corina Luckenbach and Melanie Granger

Close your eyes for a moment and think of the face of homelessness. What is the face that you see? Is that person male or female, white or black, young or old. Or maybe the person some where in between...

Episode 23: Mike McGinn

“I actually think emergency isn’t quite the right framing now. I think the right framing is that we have a refugee crisis, except [people experiencing homelessness] are not refugees from another country. These are refugees from our own economy.”  ...

Episode 22: Tim Harris

Tim Harris is the Executive Director of the street newspaper, Real Change and currently serves as the North American representative to the International Network of Street Papers. I recently sat down with Tim to discuss the roles street papers have...

Episode 21: Sloan Dawson and Sara Zewde

Designers Sara Zewde and Sloan Dawson were startled by the differences in how homelessness was manifest in West Coast cities, including their new home in Seattle, compared to cities in the east. Surprised and disquieted by how desensitized so many...

Episode 20: John Malpede

John Malpede, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Poverty Department, has been working with the housed and unhoused community members of Skid Row since the mid 1980’s. Through his work, he helps empower community members through art performances and...

Episode 19: John Wilson

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Episode 18: Tamika Butler

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Episode 17: Rachel Allen and Allen Compton

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Episode 16: Mike O'Brien

One of the ways that housing insecurity is arriving in cities is through the growth of people who are turning to vehicular living as an affordable housing arrangement in the urban context. Whether sleeping in recreational vehicles or simply in...

Episode 15: Mark Vallianatos

Sometimes an interview comes together through serendipity. While in Los Angeles for a concert, a friend shared an in-depth article about the history of LA’s housing stock called Forbidden City: How Los Angeles Banned Some of its Most Popular Buildings...

Episode 14: Breanne Schuster

There is a level of opacity surrounding so much related to homelessness, and perhaps no area is more shrouded and misunderstood than the laws that guide where and when unhoused people can eat, sleep, and live in public spaces. To...

Episode 13: Richard Rothstein

One of the most insightful and eye-opening books I’ve read this year has been Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and...

Episode 12: Scott Gilmore

In every community, one of the city agencies most impacted by homelessness are parks departments. For people who don’t have anywhere else to go, parks become refuges of safety within the city, but the impacts of homelessness can also erode...

Episode 11: Wendell Blassingame

As the unofficial “concierge of Skid Row,” Wendell Blassingame has earned his reputation as an “angel” and as a “saint.” A man of deep wisdom, kindness, and patience, Wendell was gracious enough to sit down with me at the James...

Episode 10: Graham Pruss

Technology has revolutionized just about every aspect of our existence over the last two decades. Now tech and human service providers are working together to develop new ways to quickly move people out of homelessness by connecting unhoused individuals with...

Episode 9: Leah Filler

For people who are housed, and housed comfortably, there is much about the experience of homelessness that is opaque and not easy to understand. From threats of violence, to perceived dangers from law enforcement, to uncomfortable sleeping situations, homelessness is...

Episode 8: Roger Valdez

“Is that person a homeless person or is that person my neighbor?” – Roger Valdez In discussions about homelessness, I’m always interested in hearing from people who stray from their inherent tribal orthodoxies. Roger Valdez, who directs Smart Growth Seattle, is...

Episode 7: Harley Lever

In a scene that sounds like it was straight out of Breaking Bad, Harley Lever says the tipping point for him was when a mobile meth lab burst into flames on his street. With that, he and his neighbors started...

Episode 6: Reflections #1

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Episode 5: Leslie Smith

In many cities and town’s there’s often a neighborhood where poverty is concentrated. At certain times in their histories New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, San Francisco’s Tenderloin and Los Angeles’ Skid Row bore this dubious distinction as the synonyms for chronic,...

Episode 4: Sarah Dooling

There are very few voices out there who would question the nearly panacea like effects of adding more community greenspace. In popular media and academia, new research seems to be emerging daily documenting the significant health, developmental, biological and economic...

Episode 3: Jenn LaFreniere and Rex Holhbein of The Block Project

If you could, would you? That’s the question The Block Project asks us to confront. If you could help someone experiencing homelessness, would you? And not just help by sharing your pocket change or buying some food, but would you...

Episode 2: Anitra Freeman

A few Saturday’s ago, I was able to participate in a student-led panel discussion on homelessness at the University of Washington. The format of the day was that each panelist was to give a brief overview of our own perspectives...

Episode 1: Sally Bagshaw

Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw represents Seattle District 7, which includes much of the city's downtown core. She currently chairs the Human Services and Public Health Committee. In this episode, Brice speaks with Sally about the challenges of navigating constituent...